Hungarian Grammar For Beginners

Dative Case

What is the function of dative case? It describes a situation when something is done for/to someone/something. Example:

Könyvet adok a barátomnak. – I give a book to my friend./I give my friend a book.

Nouns put in dative case is called indirect object according to the English concept!

The suffixes for it are: -NAK, -NEK. The suffix -nak is for deep-vowel nouns and adjectives, -nek for high-vowel nouns and adjectives. English equivalent is: preposition to/for or a pronoun as indirect object (I give him a book).

NOTE! The dative case doesn’t require any link vowel! You just add -nak or -nek to the noun or adjective. But you can put plural nouns in dative case. You do that by making the noun plural first and then adding -nak or -nek. I’ll write the examples with an English preposition. That way, you can compare the English sentence to the Hungarian one.

Puszit adok alánynak. – I give a kiss on the cheek to the girl.
Puszit adok alányoknak. – I give a kiss on the cheek to the girls.

Ajándékot hoztam a csapatnak. – I brought a gift for the team.
Ajándékot hoztam a csapatoknak. – I brought a gift for the teams.

Ne mondj ilyet a gyereknek! – Don’t say such a thing to the child.
Ne mondj ilyet a gyerekeknek! – Don’t say such a thing to the children.

That’s all you have to know about dative case. We’re through with it.

SUMMARY FOR PLURAL, ACCUSATIVE AND DATIVE

You see that the plural and the accusative case are based on each other. If you know the plural, you know the accusative. And you have no problem with the dative case at all, since it has no link vowels. What you should remember is this: MAKE NOUNS PLURAL FIRSTand thenMAKE THEM ACCUSATIVE OR DATIVE.

Of course, it doesn’t make any sense making a noun accusative and dative! Don’t do this: a lánytnak. It just makes no sense.

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6 comments on “Dative Case”

56) Jobban: „What is the function of dative case? It’s applied to describe a situation when something is done for / to someone / something. Example:“
és: „Noun put in dative case is… to English concept!“ és: „…is for deep-vowel nouns,… high-vowel nouns. English equivalent is:“
szintén: „…-nak or -nek to the noun. …I’ll write examples with an English preposition.“

„You see the plural… at all, since it has no link vowels. You should remember to MAKE… then MAKE THEM…“ –> Az a „to it“ a mondat végén fölös, s a többi szavak is.